Johannesburg stopover - Storm in a hot tub.

Johannesburg stopover - Storm in a hot tub. Willie enjoys a lightning bathing experience and joins half the band in a bid to leave the country.

The Incredible Journey - Day Three. Having dreamed of flying I woke at the alarm initially unable to fathom my geographical location and then being mildly surprised to find myself in Africa. On regaining consciousness to a greater degree, my physical state began to become apparent also - feeling like I could method act the lead role in that daft Kafka play with complete conviction. Today's hotel was really quite nice, so I put on a bathrobe and headed for the swimming pool, praying to Gods, European, African or otherwise, that the place would be upscale enough to have a hot tub in which I could uncurl before getting on another aeroplane. My prayers were answered favourably, and after a bit of a soak I did feel a good deal better. On re-emerging, I wandered outside to the pool, to find that the heavens had opened and there was a full scale tropical thunderstorm going on. There I was, on top of this building, wearing only a towel in the warm pouring rain, watching flash after flash forked lightning cut the sky from clouds to horizon over the distant plains of South Africa. With this crazed soundtrack of rolling, crashing thunder, I could see myself in a long slow pan-out crane camera shot with a closing titles sequence scrolling up the screen. And all before breakfast, too.

Breakfast actually never happened, as we needed to get back to the airport (oh joy), Dennis having managed to blag 15 seats out of South African Airways. Consequently, there was search for food at the airport. The only place to eat was the airport cafeteria - a very basic school dinners vibe - so in I went with The Edge, who was looking very chipper despite his night on the tiles. Huddling in a corner between South African family holiday makers Edge & I downed a bottle of red wine in one (to aid digestion, you understand). Adam and Paul & Susie found us & squeezed onto our table for two as our whole journey began to take on surreal and hilarious proportions.. Susie's a vegetarian, so with the extremely limited selection available she had pieced together a meal consisting of a baked potato with roast potatoes and chips. Sitting laughing our heads off in Johannesburg Airport cafeteria with half of U2, I have a moment of wondering what possible series of circumstances in life could have brought me to this point. "Click". Time to board.